The president of Washington College announced Tuesday that he will step down this fall to take a new post in Virginia.

Mitchell B. Reiss, who has led the college in Chestertown for four years, will become the new CEO and president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia in October, according to a release from the college.

"This is sooner than I would have chosen to leave Washington College," Reiss said in a statement. "But the college is in a strong position for the future, with great senior leadership across the board, and this new opportunity — to lead a renowned living history museum that is so crucial to our nation's sense of identity — is one I simply could not turn down."

The Washington College Board of Visitors and Governors will name an interim president and will promptly begin the search for a new president, the release said.